Simon Shepherd – författare

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde, 1900–1925 unearths an extensive range of hitherto forgotten or ignored theatre practices. In doing so it reveals some of the well-known figures of the early twentieth-century English theatre in a strikingly new light. It fluently describes an intensity of innovation and experiment that together made the Edwardian theatre rather more radical, and rather more queer, than we’ve ever thought.

Where the majority of writing on the early twentieth-century theatrical avant-garde is concerned with European movements and experiments, English activity of the period is often seen as parochial and conservative – mainly realism and issues-based drama. This book presents a new model of how avant-gardes might work; a model based not on masculine individualism but on communal inclusion. In describing this fascinating material, the author introduces us to many new figures and shows familiar ones in different ways: there’s Florence Farr, independent woman; Bob Trevelyan, radical pacifist and music drama pioneer; Granville Barker doing fairy plays while de-dramatising drama; Laurence Housman, socialist, homosexual, scripting St Francis; and the oddly modern J.M. Barrie. Together they made theatre practices rich in their diversity but consistent in their attempt to be new, producing a theatrical avant-garde unlike any other.

This is a vital and indispensable new study for scholars and students of early twentieth-century theatre in England and beyond.

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde, 1900–1925 unearths an extensive range of hitherto forgotten or ignored theatre practices. In doing so it reveals some of the well-known figures of the early twentieth-century English theatre in a strikingly new light. It fluently describes an intensity of innovation and experiment that together made the Edwardian theatre rather more radical, and rather more queer, than we’ve ever thought.

Where the majority of writing on the early twentieth-century theatrical avant-garde is concerned with European movements and experiments, English activity of the period is often seen as parochial and conservative – mainly realism and issues-based drama. This book presents a new model of how avant-gardes might work; a model based not on masculine individualism but on communal inclusion. In describing this fascinating material, the author introduces us to many new figures and shows familiar ones in different ways: there’s Florence Farr, independent woman; Bob Trevelyan, radical pacifist and music drama pioneer; Granville Barker doing fairy plays while de-dramatising drama; Laurence Housman, socialist, homosexual, scripting St Francis; and the oddly modern J.M. Barrie. Together they made theatre practices rich in their diversity but consistent in their attempt to be new, producing a theatrical avant-garde unlike any other.

This is a vital and indispensable new study for scholars and students of early twentieth-century theatre in England and beyond.

First published in 1989, Coming on Strong addresses itself to anyone, whatever their sexuality, who wants to know why gay men have become one of those most controversial minorities in 1980s Britain. What are the issues and what is to be done? This thoughtful and stimulating book looks at the relationship of gay men to law, politics and masculinity; at the specific position of Asian gays and young people; and at the threat to civil liberties posed by the homosexual law reform. Alongside analysis of the modern gay scene, there are accounts from the inside of various areas of gay work and politics. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, queer studies and cultural studies.

First published in 1989, Coming on Strong addresses itself to anyone, whatever their sexuality, who wants to know why gay men have become one of those most controversial minorities in 1980s Britain. What are the issues and what is to be done? This thoughtful and stimulating book looks at the relationship of gay men to law, politics and masculinity; at the specific position of Asian gays and young people; and at the threat to civil liberties posed by the homosexual law reform. Alongside analysis of the modern gay scene, there are accounts from the inside of various areas of gay work and politics. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, queer studies and cultural studies.

Breaking new ground in the study of performance theory, this maverick and powerful project from renowned Renaissance scholar and queer theorist Simon Shepherd presents a unique take on theory and the physical reality of theatre.

Examining a range of material, Theatre, Body, Pleasure addresses a significant gap in the literary and drama studies arenas and explores the interplay of bodily value, the art of bodies and the physical responses to that art. It explains first how the body makes meaning and carries value. Then it describes the relationships between time and space and body.

The book’s features include:

* large historical range, from medieval to postmodern * case studies offering close readings of written texts * examples of how to ‘read for the body’, exploring written text as a ‘discipline’ of the body * breadth of cultural reference, from stage plays through to dance culture * a range of theoretical approaches, including dance analysis and phenomenology

Writing in accessible prose, Shepherd introduces new ways of analyzing dramatic text and has produced a book which is part theatre history, part dramatic criticism and part theatrical tour de force. Students of drama, theatre and performance studies and cultural studies will find this an absolute must read.